LC 268 
.L6 
Copy 1 




PARENT 

and 

CHILD 

SIR OLIVER 
LODGE 





Class LG 16 

i 
Book. i 



. 



Copyright^ . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT: 



PARENT AND CHILD 



PARENT AND CHILD 

A TREATISE ON THE MORAL 

AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF 

CHILDREN 



By 
SIR OLIVER LODGE, D.Sc, F.R.S. 




FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 
1910 



.V 



Copyright, 1910, by 

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY 

[Printed in the United States of America] 

Published September, 1910 



'CLA271797 






CONTENTS 



Chapter 

I. Child Nature 



II. Parental Influence . . 

III. Imparting of Knowledge 

IV. Preparation for Life . . 
V. Preparation for Science 

VI. Preparation for Literature 
VII. Preparation for Religion . 



Page 
7 
13 
23 
31 
39 
49 
65 



[5] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



CHILD NATURE 

rriHE first thing to realize about 
* children is that they are sepa- 
rate individuals, not merely chips of 
the old block. Chips of the old block 
they are too, no doubt, but what par- 
ents sometimes forget is that they 
are separate persons, each with a 
life and destiny of its own. It is 
therefore quite possible, not only that 
the child may not understand us, but 
that we may not understand the 
child. 

[7] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



The individuality thus isolated in 
a child is not always good ! Certain- 
ly not. There can be, I presume, as 
many grades among children as 
among adults. The range seems to 
extend over the whole gamut, from 
something very like angels to some- 
thing barely distinguishable from 
devils. The nearly angelic is fortu- 
nately the more common variety, and 
I shall assume, — what may be true, — 
that all children who are given a de- 
cent chance in life, both by ancestry 
and by nurture, will respond to judi- 
cious treatment and be a credit to 
their home and upbringing. 

I think it more helpful to empha- 
size the essential goodness of human 

nature than its essential badness. 

[8] 



CHILD NATURE 



There must be phenomena which 
have led theologians to formulate the 
doctrine of original sin, but there 
must be at least equal and I think far 
greater truth in the more authorita- 
tive statement, applied to typical chil- 
dren, that of such is the Kingdom of 
Heaven. 

I have been astounded, occasion- 
ally even appalled, at the innate 
goodness of some children, — children 
who have come under my own ob- 
servation. And, holding views which 
I have elsewhere expressed as to the 
nature of incarnation, it has some- 
times struck me as an extraordinary 
privilege to be entrusted with the 
care of beings of so much interest 
and charm. They seem like guests 

[9] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



who have done us the honor of se- 
lecting our home and friendship for 
a momentous epoch in their lives. 
Such children are exceptional, how- 
ever, and one does come across some 
whose behaviour arouses feelings of 
repulsion. 

How comes it, I wonder, that chil- 
dren can occasionally be so objection- 
able? I think it is because they have 
never been taught any consideration 
for others. 

In hotels, for instance, we some- 
times encounter a family of children, 
or it may be a single child, that 
shouts and romps as if other people 
did not exist. The cosmopolitan 
child perhaps it is, who, — so to speak, 
for generations, — has never been to 

[10] 



CHILD NATURE 



school nor subjected to any sort of 
training. I have been told that on 
the South American boats there are 
family cabins, and that from these 
cabins the amount of shrill noise 
which arises, in the course appar- 
ently of normal family life, is more 
than perturbing to fellow travellers. 
With such bringing up, no wonder 
that people can be obnoxious. 

How comes it, on the other hand, 
that children of the English aris- 
tocracy, while still barely out of the 
nursery, are often so admirably be- 
haved? The few that I have known 
have been helpful and considerate 
and anxious to do little services for 
strangers and visitors. People say 
that such children are left largely to 

[ii] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



nurses; if so, some of the nurses 
must be excellent women. I expect 
they are; and I think that the pro- 
verbial nagging of the ordinary 
nurse-maid, as heard in the parks for 
instance, is becoming much less pro- 
nounced than it used to be. All this 
is making in a right direction. 



[12] 



II 

PARENTAL INFLUENCE 

13ARENTS who are strenuously 
** busy or occupied in public work 
may comfort themselves by remem- 
bering that parental influence may be 
indirect, and that a life of vivid ac- 
tivity has before now affected chil- 
dren beneficially without specific ef- 
fort, — sometimes with results even 
better than have been attained by 
constant attention specially directed 
to that end. Indeed, specially directed 
attention requires wisdom and self- 
mistrustful thought, lest occasionally 
it may do more harm than good. 
Over-attention may be destructive of 

[13] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



originality, and may tend to check 
healthy unconscious growth. The 
brooding and meditative moods of 
children should be respected; the 
stress of practical life terminates 
them quickly enough, for all save a 
few favoured persons. And the fact 
that they may be luxuriously culti- 
vated, or indulged in to excess, should 
not be allowed to break them up al- 
together ; nor should energetic super- 
visors feel justified in applying con- 
stant stimulus during any incubating 
and preparatory period; for those 
moods and periods have been proved 
ultimately to have productive value. 
Nevertheless, however busy par- 
ents are, some direct parental in- 
fluence should be exerted, for it may 

[14] 



PARENTAL INFLUENCE 

be of incalculable value. Children 
have an instinctive sense for reality 
of conviction, they have a knack of 
penetrating to what people really are, 
so that mere convention and what 
are called pious opinions carry but 
little weight. Much can be accom- 
plished by good nursery traditions; 
notably training in consideration for 
others, modesty, helpfulness, rever- 
ence for elders, and self-subordina- 
tion; great things which no one now 
addressed is likely to overlook. A 
minor thing is tidiness, — not to the 
extent of not making a litter, but of 
not leaving it; especially the habit of 
putting things back where found, the 
automatic replacement of any object 
of common property, — clothes-brush, 

[15] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



ball of string, time-table, books of 
reference, or what not, — in its proper 
place, so that others can find it. 
Hunting about for such things is an 
entire waste of time. I attach con- 
siderable importance to this leaving 
things where you find them, and 
clearing up litter. 

Adults, if busy, and school-chil- 
dren, sometimes may have to clear 
up by deputy; but if small children 
are too much waited on, and every- 
thing put away by others, it has, I 
believe, a demoralizing effect. It is 
one cause of the selfishness of the bet- 
ter-off classes that they are constant- 
ly making a mess and leaving it to 
others to put straight. Press of work 
often necessitates this; but it should 

[16] 



PARENTAL INFLUENCE 

be recognized as a responsibility, and 
not merely a matter of course, that 
we daily leave a meal-room or a bed- 
room in a state in which we should 
be annoyed to find it on our return. 

Work is a sufficient excuse, — we 
have other things to do, and it con- 
stitutes a permissible division of la- 
bour ; but if we have not other things 
to do, if we are idle habitually, as 
are some children and many adults, 
then I conceive that it would be a 
wholesomer and sounder discipline if 
we spent some time in clearing up 
after ourselves. The lounging and 
luxurious behaviour of some spec- 
imens of the overfed youthful male, 
as caricatured in the pages of Punch, 
for instance, is truly objectionable; 

[17] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



and it is melancholy to reflect that 
parental influence may enable such 
spoiled young reprobates to control 
affairs in some corner of the em- 
pire. Though, indeed, it is true 
that stress of circumstances does then 
make men of some of them; but it is 
stress and not laxity that does it. 
The laxity, so far as it went, was 
wholly bad. 

Another valuable piece of nursery 
or home tradition is the delivery of 
messages in exact words. This is a 
matter to which I attach importance, 
— it is a sort of beginning of scien- 
tific training. A child sent on a mes- 
sage should not be allowed to para- 
phrase it and deliver something there 
or thereabouts. A message so 

[18] 



PARENTAL INFLUENCE 

changed is nearly always misleading 
and frequently gives trouble. A 
child entrusted with a message, 
whether it be to the cook or the 
gardener or what not, should first 
have it delivered to him precisely and 
should repeat it before starting, and 
should then go and give it without 
attending to anything by the way. I 
have known servant troubles arise 
through the inaccurate delivery of 
messages, especially if a return mes- 
sage has to be brought; for the 
slightest alteration may easily con- 
vert a polite request or acknowledg- 
ment into something offensive, — and 
this without any hostile intention on 
the part of the messenger. In larger 
life the same sort of thing has before 

[19] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



now brought about wars. But, quite 
apart from consequences, the recol- 
lection and reproduction of exact 
words is an art in itself, and as 
every person of literary sensitiveness 
knows, is an eminently desirable 
aptitude, for it leads to accuracy 
in the quotation of poetry or prose 
later on. 

Children like being made use of, 
and an errand is an opportunity to 
make them feel their responsibility 
and take trouble to execute a com- 
mission in an exact manner ; first re- 
peating, naturally and as a matter of 
course, what it is they have to do or 
say, so as to be sure that there is no 
mistake. I venture to maintain, 
moreover, that it is a training not un- 

[20] 



PARENTAL INFLUENCE 

needed by many adults, to have to 
state accurately what is wanted, to 
describe the locality of a thing pre- 
cisely, and to instruct a messenger 
clearly. 

In the cases when a child really 
understands what is wanted to be 
said, it is excellent practice to let him 
try to put it clearly in his own words. 
To concoct a telegram, for instance, 
that will be clear and definite, not 
long-winded, and yet not capable of 
misconstruction; or to formulate his 
own message before delivering it. 



[21] 



Ill 



IMPARTING OF KNOWLEDGE 

ANOTHER thing that is due to 
children is that they should be 
told as far as possible the exact truth, 
when they ask a serious question. It 
is not easy to do this, because the 
truth as they receive it will depend 
on their faculty of apprehension ; but 
if they know enough to ask a ques- 
tion, an answer, so far as it can be 
received by them, should be true. 
The answerer should always try to 
put himself in the questioner's place, 
and look at things from his point of 
view: this is the essence of clear ex- 
planation. There may still be misun- 

[23] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



derstandings, but these can be de- 
tected and removed by a little con- 
versation, and the original statement 
can be amended accordingly. I find 
that if children know that parents 
take pains to inform them with care- 
ful accuracy as to any little thing on 
which they ask a question, and if 
they are themselves never suspected 
of saying anything but what they be- 
lieve to be true, so far as they can, 
then they will acquire instinctively a 
faculty for truthful statement, and 
the repulsive habit of lying need 
never even begin to form. 

Telling the truth is largely a mat- 
ter of culture and education. Ig- 
norant people often tell something 
else, either because it is lazier and 

[24] 



IMPARTING OF KNOWLEDGE 

easier to do so, or because they think 
it pleasanter, or simply because they 
have not accustomed their minds to 
consider what the "truth" of any- 
thing is. 

A child, too, sometimes romances 
or exaggerates in an innocent man- 
ner through excess of imagination. 
This should not be taken too serious- 
ly, and sometimes the thing said may 
have a subjective truth of its own 
which an unsympathetic or hard- 
pressed senior can hardly appreciate. 
Instances of this sort are, I believe, 
not infrequent, and it is well to make 
large allowance; but in cases where 
there is no doubt, a child can grad- 
ually be brought to see that to say 
the thing that is not is to put itself 

[25] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



out of harmony with the universe. 
A statement which is contrary to 
fact should be non-existent. There 
is no sense in it. 

It is true that adults often know 
too little to answer children's ques- 
tions, or to give exact information. 
Parenthood needs training for, like 
everything else. But confessions of 
ignorance are wholesome : and at any 
rate deliberate falseness can be avoid- 
ed. The worst kind of lies which 
children can be told are those that 
lead to fright and superstition. Chil- 
dren are newcomers to the planet, 
they cannot know by experience that 
it is, on the whole, a pleasant and 
friendly place; and if told that all 
sorts of horrors abound and are 

[26] 



IMPARTING OF KNOWLEDGE 

lurking for them round the corner, 
what can they do but believe the 
statement? until experience shows 
that it was an abominable invention. 

Superstitions again, — children 
would hardly invent them, and they 
might die a natural death, were it not 
that they are handed down by each 
generation to the next. I do beg 
people to be satisfied with having had 
the incubus of meaningless rubbish 
transmitted to them; let them now 
cut off the entail. 

What frightens some children is 
loneliness. Their loneliness can be a 
severe ordeal. Real loneliness, lone- 
liness in the universe, such as none 
of us have ever experienced, would 
be perhaps the most alarming and 

127] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



desperate sensation that man could 
have. The providential arrangement 
of parents and guardians keeps the 
loneliness of infancy far from that, 
but nevertheless it is real and alarm- 
ing at times ; it is the loneliness of in- 
carnation, it is the isolation of the 
body. Mind unites, body separates, 
or individualizes. Infants are be- 
ginning to be partitioned off from 
the surrounding mental and spiritual 
whole, and encased in a body; they 
are undergoing the process of indi- 
vidualization; they may well feel as 
if no one here understood them, and 
they are necessarily lonely. They 
seldom confess to it, nor are they 
capable of putting the idea into 
words. Persons cannot prevent this 

[28] 



IMPARTING OF KNOWLEDGE 

feeling from cropping up at times, 
nor is it desirable that they should 
prevent it, but they can understand 
and be sympathetic and not blatant 
and superficial and bullying about it. 
If a child for a time dislikes going 
to sleep in the dark, or wishes its 
door ajar, — yield to it. The dread 
will soon pass, if not artificially fos- 
tered or made much of. A child 
ought not to have to confess in 
words to his fear, — that only tends 
to make it more real and lasting. He 
will grow out of it. And, after all, 
this feeling of helplessness in an un- 
known and mysterious universe is 
very natural. The universe is big 
and mysterious and most alarming. 
Custom gradually makes its ordinary 

[29] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



friendly aspects familiar, while its 
more portentous manifestations are 
found to be exceptional ; but they are 
there, behind the scenes, and it is 
just the exceptional and the por- 
tentous of which we are instinctively 
afraid. 

Children's terrors are just as real 
as the horrible dread sometimes ex- 
perienced by grown-up people, — 
dread which they, too, learn to over- 
come, and of which they are ashamed, 
but to which the necessity of yielding, 
in some sudden emergency, is found 
even by heroes at times to be irre- 
sistible. 



[30] 



IV 

PREPARATION FOR LIFE 

AND now to enter upon larger 
- topics: 
Preparation of the child for in- 
dividual life, — this is the main object 
of education. And its chief aim must 
surely be the formation of a per- 
sonal character, a will, the separate 
individuality of a free being. The 
faculty of acquiring and worthily 
utilizing real freedom,— that is the 
object of education. And to this end 
self-discipline, self-control, is the 

[31] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



main factor. The child arrives, a 
fragment of undifferentiated mind- 
stufl, with potentialities and inherited 
powers, to begin an individual ex- 
istence. Not to begin existence, — 
that nothing that we know of ever 
does, — but to begin an individual ex- 
istence, to begin as a separate unit 
of life and mind, to grow a character 
and reap a destiny. 

Control of attention is the first step 
toward this end. Not to be distracted 
by every passing sight and sound. 
To concentrate the mind on one ob- 
ject, without regard to every butter- 
fly distraction that flits across the 
field of view. 

The task is difficult, and adults 
must be patient. Some of them 

[32] 



PREPARATION FOR LIFE 

have not learned concentration them- 
selves. 

But control of attention can be 
cultivated, — its entire absence is a 
well-known medical criterion of fee- 
ble-mindedness, — many things need 
not be attended to, side issues and de- 
flecting suggestions must be ignored. 
It is not necessary to do or to utter 
everything that crops up in the mind. 
It is not necessary to do everything 
that occurs to you to do. Quite a 
small effort of attention will show 
that the suggestion is very likely a 
mere device of distraction. Though 
there are cases, — as when a question 
arises whether a letter ought to be 
written or not, — when the unpleasant 
path is the wisest, — the course which 



PARENT AND CHILD 



best fits our total scheme. The mo- 
tive power ebbs and flows, as Mat- 
thew Arnold says* 

We cannot kindle when we will 

The fire which in the heart resides ; 
The spirit bloweth and is still, 
In mystery our soul abides. 
But tasks in hours of insight will'd 
Can be through hours of gloom fulfill'd. 

All this is part of the creation of a 
will. It is the essence of self-deter- 
mination to carry through a purpose, 
undeterred by the golden apples that 
a competitor or a spectator may 
throw beside your path. This power 
of self-determination is essential to 
freedom. Fulfilment of a definite and 
prescribed task, — at first, indeed, pre- 

[34] 



PREPARATION FOR LIFE 

scribed by others, but later by your- 
self; prescribed, that is, by the whole 
intelligence and purpose of your 
being, — this is what is meant by a 
dependable trustworthy character, 
one that can be counted on to do 
what it decides to do, one that is not 
at the mercy of whims and random 
impulses, one that has overcome 
caprice and is able to reject tempta- 
tion and is not a creature of impulses 
nor the slave of anything but its own 
will. 

That is freedom, when you act in 
accordance with your own will, and 
are not driven hither and thither by 
every passing impulse. The evil- 
doer, as Plato in the "Gorgias" lays 
down, the evil-doer is a slave, — a 

[35] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



slave it may be of his own vices, 
which he has allowed to get the up- 
per hand. 

For liberty is a very different thing 
from license, — and it is only when 
the nature has risen to a certain 
height of development that it can be 
trusted with the reins. Until that 
stage is reached it must be controlled 
from outside. But when that stage 
is really reached the whole being re- 
sponds joyously to the demands upon 
its powers, and act and will run har- 
moniously together. 

This is the flower of self-control, 
this is the service that is perfect free- 
dom. Few are the happy dispositions 
who attain the state without effort, 
but in some children it is found, — 

[36] 



PREPARATION FOR LIFE 

"glad hearts/' as Wordsworth says 
in the "Ode to Duty," 

Glad hearts! without reproach or blot; 
Who do thy work and know it not. 

But for the most part we have to 
learn through effort how to be 

No sport of every random gust. 

and only after error and remorse do 
we attain to the state 

When love is an unerring light, 
And joy its own security. 

But in so far as the happy docile 
child-spirit can from the first be en- 
couraged and prolonged, — in so far 
as it can be assumed, and assumed 
with truth, that the child-will is 
right, and that only the flesh is oc- 

[37] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



casionally weak, — so far shall we be 
able to recognize in childhood, and 
ultimately in the now too scarred face 
of humanity, that which we are as- 
sured is really there, though hidden : 

The Godhead's most benignant grace. 

"Heaven lies about us in our in- 
fancy. " Yes, truly, but why only in 
our infancy? Verily, I believe, be- 
cause we have effectually prevented 
anything like "heaven" from sur- 
rounding the infancy of so many of 
the human race to-day. 

The earth is full of darkness and cruel habitations. 

So our vision is darkened, too, and 
the ministry of benevolence is hidden 
from our gaze. 

[38] 



V 
PREPARATION FOR SCIENCE 

T) UT I must check an incipient di- 
-*-* gression and now say a word 
or two on more technical teaching, — 
what has been called "the prepara- 
tion of the child for science. ,, 

The inquisitiveness of children 
should be utilized as an opportunity 
for providing them with information. 
When they are hungry, then they 
should be fed,— if possible by teach- 
ers who are informed themselves. It 
is easier to answer questions badly 
than to answer them well; the appe- 
tite for information is most valuable, 

[39] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



but it is sometimes supplied with 
wretched food. Every effort should 
be made to get the facts right, to un- 
derstand them properly; but how 
great a demand this is, only those 
who have had some training in 
science can be aware. 

The next best thing is to confess 
ignorance and offer to try and worry 
out an answer together. The dis- 
covery that adults, too, are ignorant, 
and that there are ways of hunting 
up information, — especially the way 
by experiment and first-hand obser- 
vation, — is stimulating, and abun- 
dantly wholesome. 

In teaching a new subject, I would 
that parents could distinguish be- 
tween essential features and sub- 

[40] 



PREPARATION FOR SCIENCE 

sidiary details. A bad kind of in- 
struction overloads the mind with de- 
tail before the main features have 
been grasped; i.e., before there is any 
framework into which to pack the 
details. This is most discouraging. 
It is the kind of thing that gradually 
generates a dislike of being taught, — 
a dislike unnatural to a healthy child. 
Grammar and arithmetic, in the 
hands of an incompetent teacher, are 
familiar instruments for generating 
this dislike. 

Every subject can be presented in 
such a way as to be received with en- 
thusiasm by an intelligent child 
whose mind has not already been 
clogged or warped. 

Instruction should not be arti- 

[41] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



ficially systematic. System is ex- 
cellent in its proper place; but the 
bare facts must be approached first; 
the learner must be immersed in them 
to begin with, in a real practical way, 
without rules and conventions. Noth- 
ing but practice will make a subject 
familiar; and during the practice a 
"rule" here and there, — that is a con- 
venient summing up of the results 
of experience, — may be thrown in; 
if possible at a moment when it will 
be welcomed and assimilated. 

The same method should govern 
preliminary instruction in nature. 
Eschew what is called systematic 
science-teaching till a later stage; 
utilize at first children's natural in- 
terest in phenomena. Immerse them 

[42] 



PREPARATION FOR SCIENCE 

in phenomena, and let them find their 
way through; assisted, but not car- 
ried. Let them observe and think, 
and themselves try to explain. The 
effort to explain even the simplest 
thing is wholly good, both for teach- 
ers and taught. And, for taught, a 
self-devised incomplete explanation is 
better than a more elaborate one 
which they do not perceive the need 
for. For a time the incomplete ex- 
planation can be left; then holes can 
be picked in it, — if possible by things 
themselves, — and so it can be grad- 
ually improved, until ultimately a 
more perfect model of an explanation 
may be told them; but not before its 
merits can be to some extent appre- 
ciated. 

[43] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



Occasionally there are legitimate 
exceptions, and carefully worded 
formula may be learned, of which the 
full meaning will only gradually 
dawn. No one method should ex- 
clude others. Teaching is an art 
well worthy of study. To some few 
it is an instinct, — to others an ac- 
quired art; but alas! to many who 
profess to be teachers, the skill is, 
or used to be, conspicuous by its ab- 
sence; the children suffer, and all 
who have subsequently to do with 
them have to suffer too, — right away 
up to the university, and beyond it, 
in life. 

A quantity of things can be taught 
rather by way of questions than by 
direct instruction. Questions can be 

[44] 



PREPARATION FOR SCIENCE 

propounded, with time allowed for 
brooding and thinking over them, — 
not minutes, I mean, but days. 

In geometry, for instance, con- 
structions can be invented by a pupil ; 
the subject can be begun as a game, a 
series of interesting puzzles, — a very 
few at a time, even if easy, so as not 
to be wearisome. Spencer's "Inven- 
tional Geometry" is a little book that 
is of assistance to elementary teach- 
ers. Things self-discovered are en- 
shrined, and hold a place in the mind 
far more secure than things merely 
hooked on outside. 

Interest may be killed by prema- 
ture systematic instruction. Infor- 
mation concerning things of no inter- 
est is valueless information. Curios- 

[45] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



ity should first be aroused. The 
preparation of the mind for acquiring 
or cultivating knowledge is far 
more valuable than packing it with 
facts. The process of education, — as 
I have elsewhere said,— is not like 
packing things into a portmanteau, 
but like stocking a pond with fish. 
The healthy mind is itself alive and 
active; and if time be given, the 
produce of the pond, as tested by 
fisherman or examiner, may far ex- 
ceed the original supply. 

Another thing the teacher should 
realize is the difference between the 
real and the conventional. Names 
are conventional, weights and meas- 
ures are conventional, many of the 

[46] 



PREPARATION FOR SCIENCE 

devices of language are conventional. 
To test convention, one has only to 
bethink oneself whether a statement 
is applicable only to England or to 
every country in the world. Some 
things are true throughout the uni- 
verse, some things true only for the 
planet. Things that are true every- 
where and for all time are clearly 
worthy of thorough apprehension. 
Some things are true both here and 
hereafter, — beyond these present 
bounds of time and place, — these are 
the most vital of all. 

It would surely interest a child to 
bethink himself whether a fact is true 
in one of these senses or in the other, 
— valid here and now, or valid sem- 

[47] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



per ubique et ab omnibus. It is an 
educative idea, too, in after life, and 
one not too common. It tends auto- 
matically to arrange things in some 
sort of order of importance. 



[48] 



VI 

PREPARATION FOR LITERATURE 

SO far I have emphasized one side 
of training, — what may be called 
the more scientific side. If I leave 
it without balance, I shall be convey- 
ing an exceedingly false impression 
of what I intend. Any unbalanced 
and one-sided system will have un- 
toward results, but because I em- 
phasize one side, I am not intending 
to advocate exclusive attention to that 
side ; there are plenty of others. And 
now I come to the more literary side. 
Let it never be thought that I ad- 
vocate the curbing and correcting of 

[49] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



childish grammar and infantile lan- 
guage. On the contrary, I regard 
untutored modes of expression as of 
interest and value. Here is scope for 
originality and self-manifestation. 

Grammar is a conventional mould 
into which we must fit in due time, 
but into which we are by no means 
born. Some initial freedom in this 
respect is essential to character. Pre- 
cision of intention is one thing, 
grammatical correctness another. 
The latter comes with years, the 
former may begin in infancy. A 
child with a stomach-ache will not 
say the pain is in its toe, however 
little language it may possess. 

To correct childish grammatical 
errors prematurely is worrying and 

[50] 



PREPARATION FOR LITERATURE 

most unwise; it deprives a child of 
naturalness, and adults of some 
pleasure. If small twins, for in- 
stance, having a joint birthday, are 
asked whose birthday it is; and if 
after looking at each other for a mo- 
ment they simultaneously respond 
"we's," any one who would attempt 
to correct the statement into ac- 
cordance with the rules of English 
grammar would be guilty of a minor 
kind of blasphemy. This parable 
summarizes all I have to say on that 
head. 

So again, in emphasizing truth of 
statement in its due time and place, 
it may be thought that I am against 
fairy tales. It is possible, I think, to 
cultivate them to excess; but to ex- 

[51] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



elude them and forbid children to 
hear the old immortal stories, — part 
of the tradition of the race, — would 
be a literary crime. Appropriate 
dealing with different categories of 
things is largely an affair of moods. 
I want to emphasize this. What is 
suitable for one mood is not suitable 
in another. The mood and the sub- 
ject should agree. 

Children are not always in a work- 
ing mood, sometimes they are in a 
playing mood, sometimes in an im- 
aginative or make-believe mood, 
sometimes in a serious or inquiring 
mood. These moods should none of 
them be repressed, nor should they be 
treated all alike. The right mood 
should be induced, when necessary, 

[52] 



PREPARATION FOR LITERATURE 

before instruction; otherwise no 
progress will be made. In the inqui- 
ring mood they should be supplied 
with fact, i.e., with something that 
may be called the beginnings of 
science. In the imaginative mood 
with fairy tales; i.e., with something 
that can be called the beginnings of 
literature. The habit of constantly 
asking whether a thing is true is an 
uncultured and inappropriate habit; 
it means that the wrong mood is up- 
permost. Some things are better 
than true. You do not call a sunset, 
or the Sistine Madonna, or St. 
Mark's, Venice, or the fifth Sym- 
phony, "true." A cloud, moreover, 
is not what it seems; and, going up 
into it, you find it merely a wet 

[53] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



drizzle. A rainbow is in many ways 
deceptive; it is only depicted in the 
eye. A mirage can be treated scien- 
tifically enough, but as observed it is 
a phantasm. Even the image in a 
looking-glass is not really there. 
Children must learn that things are 
not what they seem, and that works 
of imagination and beauty have a 
truth of their own which can be felt 
but not stated. They will know this 
instinctively, they will not require to 
be taught it, if they have not been 
first taught wrong. True to nature, 
a great poem, — yea, any reasonable 
poem, — must be. True to historical 
fact, certainly not. To take a simple 
case, Enoch Arden need not have 
lived. Macbeth is Macbeth without 

[54] 



PREPARATION FOR LITERATURE 

any aid from Scottish history. Rob- 
inson Crusoe is independent of Alex- 
ander Selkirk. Hamlet and Othello 
are alive in their own magnificent 
way. It is the scholar's way; but it 
is also the unsophisticated child's 
way. So are Red Riding-Hood, and 
Jack the Giant-Killer, and Don 
Quixote, and all the other heroes, — 
they live in the memory of genera- 
tions. 

And in what way need it be differ- 
ent with other legendary characters 
of more historical import? King Ar- 
thur, for instance, and Hector, and 
William Tell. Historical they are in 
a sense, — they have not been gra- 
tuitously invented, but their im- 
portance does not rest upon his- 

[55] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



torical fact. So it may be in more 
serious cases. Every incident in the 
lives of Noah, Daniel, and Job, need 
not be historically true. The book 
of Job never pretended to be history ; 
it has a superior reality of its own. 

In some of these cases there is a 
genuine historical basis, which it is 
interesting and it may be important 
to ascertain. Historical reality is in 
some cases of the essence of the mat- 
ter. It is so in connection with the 
founding of Christianity. I fully ad- 
mit, and indeed urge, this. There 
are cases where it is vital, but I am 
not referring to those now. In or- 
dinary historical cases the evidence 
must be dealt with according to the 
canons of scientific criticism, but this 

[56] 



PREPARATION FOR LITERATURE 

is no work for children. They must 
first take their history from author- 
ity, and on trust. 

Meanwhile, if for a time they take 
unquestioningly as history narratives 
which belong to a different category, 
no harm is done. The youth of the 
race doubtless did the same, or 
rather did not ask or worry about the 
difference. Evolutionally children 
should in such matters go through 
the phases of the past, and their 
course need not be hurried. To con- 
fuse them with rationalistic interpre- 
tation and criticism, to superpose 
modern explanatory conceptions on 
the plain tale of a mythology, at least 
to insist on such explanations pre- 
maturely, may be iconoclastic and 

[57] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



rather stupid. There is plenty of the 
only truth of value in ancient and 
long surviving legends, — else they 
would not have survived. 

The histories of the Creation and 
the Fall of Man, properly under- 
stood, are legends of profound truth, 
— truth to human nature, — and it is 
only a shallow sciolism that has tried 
to place them in the region of things 
that must be questioned. Works of 
art are not to be scrutinized in terms 
of a rigid literalness; in these mat- 
ters it is preeminently true that the 
letter killeth, the spirit giveth life. 
The whole truth in such matters is 
far beyond us, even yet. We are 
still developing, still only in the 
morning of the times. Read in the 

[58] 



PREPARATION FOR LITERATURE 

light of Evolution, and with a de- 
veloped historical sense, the litera- 
ture of the growth of humanity 
toward a worthy conception of Deity, 
— a conception always growing but 
still infinitely and forever below 
reality, — the record of its early 
struggles and mistakes and well- 
meant gropings after truth, espe- 
cially the history of the religious de- 
velopment of that people whose in- 
stinct for religion blossomed and 
bore fruit even in the darkest ages of 
mankind, is full of interest and in- 
struction. Read as an infallible 
theological treatise concerning the 
varying ways of God to man, — it is 
confusing, puzzling, and immoral. 
Read as a history of the developing 

[59] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



response of man to God, — its mis- 
conceptions are pathetic, its inspira- 
tions are sublime. Here we have ut- 
terances of the wise and illuminated 
among mankind, embedded in a most 
human document, and preserved for 
us in splendid language by the de- 
voted labours of scholars of many 
periods; a rich inheritance which we 
owe to the loving care of our fathers, 
and which it is our duty to hand 
down to our children as a birthright 
of which no trivial bickerings, no 
sectarian differences and illiteracy, 
should be allowed to deprive them. 

How much can children under- 
stand of all this? How far can they 
grasp the evolutionary aspect of an- 
cient human documents? 

[60] 



PREPARATION FOR LITERAT URE 

I believe they can grasp it very 
well. Only let their teachers get the 
right point of view, and the children 
will experience no difficulty. The 
difficulties which now they genuinely 
experience are quite other than that, 
and are the necessary outcome of 
mistaken modes of regarding the 
documents as one literal and me- 
chanical scientific treatise, an in- 
fallible record of physical truth. 
Thus regarded, there are indeed 
things that puzzle, and things that 
repel. Orders are put into the 
mouth of Jehovah which emanate 
quite naturally from a priesthood, 
and find in that origin an ample ex- 
planation. 

Neither the book of Nature nor 
[61] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



the book of human History can be 
taken at its face value; they both re- 
quire for their full apprehension a 
trained mind and a favorable point 
of view. Seen from the right aspect, 
however, both are luminous, and full 
of the energising action of the Di- 
vine Spirit. 

If still the behaviour of the Tribes 
in the Desert, or after their entry 
into the Promised Land,— if still the 
behaviour of the patriarchs or of the 
best among the kings, — is puzzling 
and inferior to what we might have 
expected, we have only to try to 
realize the condition of the average 
world at that epoch. Mankind 
emerging from savagery must for 
long have been an unlovely spectacle, 

[62] 



PREPARATION FOR LITERATURE 

— fighting and tearing and sunk in 
bestial practices, — its nascent intelli- 
gence only serving to bring into 
greater prominence the surviving ele- 
ments of ape and tiger, to make the 
lusts and cruelties more awful. In- 
finite, indeed, must have been the pa- 
tience and long-suffering of the 
Deity. Out of such a world the 
patriarchs rise as majestic figures, 
earnestly striving after some begin- 
nings of an approach to the divine. 
An Abraham to-day offering up his 
son would be a fanatic. In his place 
and time it was an act of faith. 
Agamemnon similarly offered up his 
daughter Iphigenia. It was an act 
of worship, — the nascent idea of sac- 
rifice. "Other times, other man- 

[63] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



ners"; and if we read those his- 
tories of twenty centuries B.C., as if 
they took place in the twentieth cen- 
tury a.d v we shall hopelessly mis- 
read. 



[64] 



VII 

PREPARATION FOR RELIGION 

BUT it does not follow that our 
condition now is so very much 
better. Better it is; but, looked back 
upon from thirty or forty centuries 
hence, how will it appear? What 
will posterity think of our violent 
social inequalities, of our squalor and 
destitution, of our slums, work- 
houses, and prisons,— especially of 
our prisons? I believe that with all 
our motors and Dreadnoughts and 
flying-machines, we shall be regard- 
ed for the most part, even now, as 
still sunk in barbarism. 

To us, too, have been accorded 
[65] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



brilliant inspirations. Prophets and 
poets have been vouchsafed to us. 
We, too, are a chosen people, and 
we look forward to a world-wide fed- 
eration of the English-speaking race; 
but in spite of all that manifest guid- 
ance and enlightenment, — guidance 
as by pillar of cloud and of fire, — 
our national conduct is still dark, 
still are we too much influenced by a 
surviving savage creed, still are we 
essentially thoughtless and cruel, still 
far from the precepts of the Sermon 
on the Mount. Let not children sup- 
pose that in detecting the faults of a 
bygone generation we may with im- 
punity be blind to our own. 

But the leaven is working, and in 
the future dawns a great hope. The 

[66] 



PREPARATION FOR RELIGION 

evils and ugliness of the present time 
have in them all a note of prepara- 
tion, the nineteenth century was a 
period of strenuous activity of which 
we have not yet begun to reap the 
fruit. The old placid times have 
given place to a restless period of 
materialistic activity, — to the despair 
and lamentation of some of our 
prophets, — but the end is not yet. 

Even so a country-side, defaced 
and bemired by the litter of a 
builder's yard, looks hopelessly 
spoiled, and may fill the onlooker of 
that day with regret. And yet in due 
season, when the building shall have 
been erected, — the palace, the ca- 
thedral, the structure of use and 
beauty, — the note of preparation in 

[67] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



the previous ugliness will be clear, 
and wisdom will be justified of all 
her children. The key-note sound- 
ing through the history of the human 
race is preparation, — preparation for 
the race that shall be, for the advent 
of the kingdom of heaven upon earth. 

A child can realize this, in some 
sort, for he himself is likewise a 
preparation for the future. The very 
universe is not a Being, but a Be- 
coming; and in this pregnant saying 
of antiquity, — which may be regard- 
ed as the first inspired glimpse of the 
doctrine of evolution, — is to be found 
the clue to much Divine working, the 
justification of the ways of God to 
men. 

Creation is not a momentary but a 
[68] 



PREPARATION FOR RELIGION 



perennial act. Each stage in it is 
"good," has a goodness of its own; 
no stage is perfect. Perfection is al- 
ways ahead, improvement is always 
possible; and it has at length become 
the conscious privilege of creatures 
to assist in this work of improve- 
ment. Nothing can be so inspiring 
to a human being as the idea that he 
is of value, that his help is really 
wanted. Nothing can so enforce the 
doctrine of responsibility as the 
realization that it rests with us to 
choose whether we shall mend or 
mar, shall beautify or deface, some 
portion of the work. 

I venture to say that the creation 
of free and responsible, and at the 
same time noble and worthy, beings, 

[69] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



who go right not because they are 
compelled, but because they choose, — 
not because they must, but because 
they will, — is a task far from easy, 
even to omnipotence. The assistance 
of every agent who can realize his 
place in the scheme is desired. Else 
were it blasphemous to maintain that 
there was ever imperfection; else the 
struggle of existence were a fiction 
and a sham. 

This, therefore, at bottom accounts 
for all the pain and sorrow and suf- 
fering that is not man-made. Most 
of our troubles are avoidable, and 
are due to human selfishness and un- 
wisdom; but some are not, some are 
inevitable, — brought about, as the 
ancients used to say, by the gods. 

[70] 



PREPARATION FOR RELIGION 

Even so it is with all great works : 
the end when fully realized is seen 
to justify the intermediate stages. In 
human creations, too, the element of 
pain is not absent, its presence res- 
cues them from insipidity. In any 
noble tragedy the suffering is felt 
to be worth while. "King Lear," for 
instance, is a work of pain and sor- 
row and beauty. To achieve the 
beauty, the pain was necessary, and 
its creator thought it worth while; 
he would not have it otherwise, nor 
would we. 

Seen from the point of view of the 
Creator, all the pain and trouble in 
the world is either remediable by 
human agents, or is justified and 
necessary; it is worth going through, 

[71] 



PARENT AND CHILD 



in view of the glory that shall be re- 
vealed. This long drama of human 
history, the countless aeons of pre- 
vious preparation of the planet, must 
have been all worth while. And thus 
the bitter cry of humanity is really 
a message of hope. The beauty and 
the joy that now we realize only in 
moments must be there all the time, 
but it needs all the preparation for its 
perception. 

Dark is the world to thee: thyself art the 
reason why. 

Revelation through development, — 
that is the message. A divine reve- 
lation must be gradual, it can only 
be given to man as he can receive it. 
It is the blindness of man that hin- 

[72] 



PREPARATION FOR RELIGION 

ders the revelation of God; there is 
no other hindrance. We live in the 
blinding splendour of it, even now. 
Human history is the slow and 
gradual preparation of man for the 
divine vision, the divine message. 
The message is sounding all the time, 
— it is the sense that is wanting: 
"He that hath ears to hear, let him 
hear." 

And the ear of man can not hear, and the eye 

of man can not see; 
But if we could see and hear, this Vision, — 

were it not He? 



THE END. 



[73] 



THE 

HOUR-GLASS 
STORIES 

THE SANDALS 

By Rev. Zelotes Grenell. A beautiful little idyl 
of sacred story dealing with the sandals of Christ. 

THE COURTSHIP OF SWEET 
ANNE PAGE 

By Ellin V*. Talbot. A brisk little love story 
incidental to "The Merry Wives of Windsor," full 
of fun and frolic, and telling of the Courtship of 
Sweet Anne Page by three rival lovers chosen by 
her father, her mother, and herself. 

THE TRANSFIGURATION OF 
MISS PHILURA 

By Florence Morse Kingsley. This clever story is 
based on the theory that every physical need and every 
desire of the human heart can be claimed and received 
from the " Encircling Good " by the true believer. 

THE HERR DOCTOR 

By Robert MacDonald. A novelette of artistic 
literary merit, narrating the varied experiences of 
an American girl in her effort toward capturing a 
titled husband. 

ESARHADDON 

By Count Leo Tolstoy. Three allegorical stories 
illustrating Tolstoy's theories of non-resistance, and 
the essential unity of all forms of life. 

Small /2oto, Dainty Cloth Binding, Illustrated. 
40 cents each 

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Pubi. 
NEW YORK and LONDON 



THE 



HOUR-GLASS 
STORIES 



THE CZAR'S GIFT 

By William Ordway Partridge. How freedom 
was obtained for an exiled brother. 

THE EMANCIPATION OF 

MISS SUSANA 

An entrancing love story that ends in a most 
romantic marriage. 

THE OLD DARNMAN 

BvCharlisL. Goodell, D.D. A character known 
to many a New England boy and girl, in which the 
" lost bride " is the occasion for a lifelong search 
from door to door. 

BALM IN GILEAD 

By Florence Morse Kingsley. A very touch ing 
story of a mother's grief over the loss of her child of 
tender years, and her search for comfort, which she 
finds at last in her husband's loyal Christian faith. 

MISERERE 

By Mabel Wagnalls. The romantic story of a 
sweet voice that thrilled great audiences in operatic 
Paris, Berlin, etc. 

PARSIFAL 

By H. R. Haweis. An intimate study of the great 
operatic masterpiece. 

THE TROUBLE WOMAN 

By Clara Morris. A pathetic little story full of 
heart interest. 

Small I2m», Dainty Clcth Binding, Illustrated. 
40 ctntt tach 

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Pubs. 
NEW YORK and LONDON 



Vital Help Toward Body Building 

Home Gymnastics 

ACCORDING TO THE LING SYSTEM 
By Prof. ANDERS WIDE, M.D. 

This system of gymnastics has been de- 
signed on strictly scientific principles, and 
has been recognized by educators throughout 
the world as a most valuable and practical 
one. Stockholm has long maintained a 
Royal Gymnastic Institute, where it has 
been taught with ever increasing efficiency 
since 1813. The system has met with 
great popularity and has proved adaptable 
as a home-culture course. The object of this 
work is to enable any one to put into practise 
the principles on which sound physical 
health may be gained and maintained. 

"A marvelous amount of information of a most 
practical character. '* — Nenv York Sun. 

"A practical handbook for home use." — 
Detroit Times. 

"This little book is thoroughly commendable." 
— Chicago Record- Her aid. 

" It is a little book of great value, and will un- 
doubtedly be useful in the schools and to business and 
professional persons." — Salt Lake Tribune. 

I2tno y Cloth, jo cents, net; by mail, jy cents 

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Pubs. 
NEW YORK and LONDON 



Profit and Loss 
in Man 

By ALPHONSO A. HOPKINS, Ph.D. 

The New Gospel of Patriotic, Economic, 
and Political Common Sense on the Tem- 
perance Question. The most up-to-date 
and powerful plea for Prohibition upon 
purely economic grounds that has been 
written in years. It is calm and dispas- 
sionate, and discusses the problem from 
the cold matter-of-fact standard of dollars 
and cents. 

CONTENTS 



I. The Cost of a Boy. 
II. Boy and Bar. 

III. Manhood and Law. 

IV. Labor, Liquor, and 

Law. 

V. Christian Loyalty. 

VI. Barabbas. 

VII. Moral and Political 
Force. 



VIII. Moral Facts and 

Political Factors. 
IX. Dictionary Politics. 
X. -A Curse, a Crime, 
and the Cure. 
XI. Publicans and Re- 
publicans. 
XII. Democrats and 
Drink. 
XIII. Methods of Settle- 
ment. 



"The unique idea of placing temperance on a commer- 
cial basis, of considering the difference between the actual 
cash value of a man who drinks and the man who abstains, 
is intensely interesting and profitable. Prof. Hopkins 
claims that each young man twenty-one years of age 
represents a cost to society of two thousand dollars 
($2,000). Will he pay — will he * make good' — on the 
investment if he becomes a drinker.' That's the ques- 
tion ! In the United States are one and a half millions 
of drunkards — a stupendous loss of an investment aggre- 
gating over five billions of dollars ($5,000,000,000)." — 
Cumberland Presbyterian, Nashville, Tenn. 

l2mo, Cloth, 376 pp. $1.20, net ; by mail, $1.32 

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Pubi. 
NEW YORK and LONDON 



A JUNIOR 
CONGREGATION 

a children's sermon appropriate to evert sun- 
day OF THE YEAR, TOGBTHER WITH HINTS 
FOR FORMING A JUNIOR CONGREGATION 

By JAMES M. FARRAR, D.D. 

Pastor of the First Reformed Church, Brooklyn, and 

Minuter #/ the First Organised Junior 

Congregation 

The church-going men and women of to- 
day were the church-going children of their 
youth. But theirs, most likely was a com- 
pulsory attendance. This, however, is the 
Children's Age. More time, more thought, 
more energy are, in this generation, given 
to the study, development, and discipline of 
children than has ever been attempted in 
any past century. The Children's Church 
is being organized in congregations where 
the children's welfare and the church's 
future are close at heart. Children in such 
a church love to attend, for theirs is A 
Junior Congregation worshiping with the 
regular congregation, thus forming habits 
of church-going in their best habit-forming 
years, and acquiring a familiarity with the 
church's services and ordinances that will 
help them grow into sturdy church workers. 

I2mo, Cloth. $1.20, net; by mail, $1.28 
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Pubs. 

NEW YORK and LONDON 



" Dr. Burrell always sounds a bugle-call to high 
emprise. This one will stir whatever of knighthood 
is active or latent in the heart of the young man 
who reads it." — John Bancroft Dzvins, Editor 
Neiv York " Observer.'''' 



THE LURE 
OF THE CITY 

By DAVID JAMES BURRELL, D.D.,LL D. 

Pasttr $f the Marble Ctllegiate Church 
New Terk City 

Addrest to "the youth whose lot is cast 
in the city or whose heart is turned that way ; 
who knows himself a man, and with eyes 
aloft means to make himself a better one; 
who plans a full equipment, that he may 
win splendidly." — From the Preface. 

" I have seldom had more pleasure than I have 
found in reading Dr. Burrell* s strong and suggestive 
book. It is a book for the present hour and the 
present age. In a style singularly lucid and wonder- 
fully attractive, Dr. Burrell sets forth the dangers of 
the city on the one hand and its advantages on the 
other. Each of the twenty-two chapters might stand 
by itself as a word of cheer, a bugle call or a warning. 
The epithet most suitable to the book, as a whole, is 
' sane. ' Nothing is overstrained. Everything is 
practical, and the book is thoroughly manly, and is 
infused throughout with the author's vigorous and 
winning personality. It is emphatically a book for 
theyoungman." — Margaret E. Sangster, Editor 
of the St. Nicholas Magazine, New York. 

I2tno t Cloth. $1.00) net; by mail, $1.08 

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Pubs. 
NEW YORK and LONDON 



SEP 21 1910 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



■. •-« 



21 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 467 944 3 



